Refuting a caller's observation that President Bush “has gone back on many of his” policies and hasn't given the American people the “true scoop” on the Iraq war, 630 KHOW-AM co-host Craig Silverman claimed that Bush “said what he was going to do in Iraq” and that Bush's “problem is he's too stubborn, not that he changes.” However, as Media Matters for America has documented, the Bush administration has flip-flopped numerous times regarding the Iraq war.

From the May 3 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CALLER: Bush has gone back on many of his things. I mean, I just don't know if we can trust any of these people we elect anymore.

SILVERMAN: What has he gone back on?

CALLER: You -- you know, I, I think that -- you know, I'm not sure we've gotten the true scoop on the war. Even though I voted for the guy twice, you know, I feel like, you know, all he does is give up lip service to immigration and to other things like that. He just -- they don't seem to follow through. You know -- you know, you elect one person and you end up with another.

DAN CAPLIS (co-host): Hmm.

SILVERMAN: Well, I don't remember him comin' out tough against illegal immigration at any point in his career, and as we discussed last hour, he said what he was going to do in Iraq; he took a big gamble, he gambled his place in American history, and I, I -- I, I think his problem is he's too stubborn, not that he changes.

Contrary to Silverman's assertion, administration policy on Iraq has been markedly inconsistent. As Media Matters has noted:

• In an October 22, 2006, interview, Bush asserted that his administration's strategy in Iraq has “never been stay the course.” The next day, White House senior adviser Dan Bartlett similarly stated that the administration's Iraq policy has “never been a 'stay the course' strategy.” Yet Bush repeatedly asserted that the United States “will stay the course” in Iraq, including as recently as an August 30, 2006, speech.

• A November 1, 2006, Associated Press article reported that Bush “replied in the affirmative” that he wanted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld “to stay with him until the end,” despite heavy criticism of Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq. Rumsfeld stepped down just a week later -- one day after Democrats won control of Congress in the midterm elections. According to MSNBC, Bush answered a question about whether his nomination of former CIA director Robert Gates to replace Rumsfeld “signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops” by saying, “Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon.”

• The November 1 AP article also reported that Bush said “he did not foresee a change in the immediate future in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.” However, in a January 10 national address, Bush stated, “It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq,” and he announced that he was “committ[ing] more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.”

• Additionally, on December 1, 2004, Pentagon officials announced that the United States would increase the number of its troops in Iraq by nearly 12,000, raising the total number of American troops in Iraq to 150,000. The increases were inconsistent with past Bush administration promises concerning troop levels in Iraq.